December 20, 2016
This issue  is dedicated to our beloved Professor Rabbi Jack BEMPORAD 
Rabbi Jack Bemporad receives an honoris causa doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome

O n November 9th Rabbi Jack Bemporad bec ame the first Rabbi to receive an honorary doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas  (the Angelicum).

Rabbi Bemporad delivered a 45-minute theological discourse as part of the ceremony.  Although Rabbi Bemporad has received many awards and accolades in the past, he says, "None has touched me the way this has. In many ways, it marks the culmination of my years studying Christianity and other religions." 


Having fled Italy at the age of five with his family after the fascist takeover, Bemporad has dedicated his life's work to applying his knowledge to further interreligious dialogue, understanding, and harmony.
 
For the past 17 years he has been teaching courses at the Angelicum in First Century Judaism and the Hebrew Prophets to priests and nuns, in addition to clergy and lay students from various religions; including Muslims, Jews, and Protestants. And over the past 9 years, he has held the position of Director of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue. In order for the honoris causa doctorate to be bestowed on Rabbi Bemporad, approval was required from Pope Francis, as well as the faculty of the Angelicum.

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Russell Berrie Alumni Grant Program Winners!!!

The goal of this initiative is to foster outstanding, innovative, creative, high quality interreligious dialogue (IRD) and interfaith action projects, academic research, and other activities by alumni that will have a positive impact on improving interreligious understanding in their own communities, and in the field overall.
The winners of the Rusell Berrie Alumni Grant Program 2016 are:

Paola Bernardini (Cohort II, Italy): " Academic Seminar on Pluralism and Interfaith Coexistence in North America: Lessons to Learn." The aim of this seminar is to offer an introduction on the conditions and implications of the North American tradition of pluralism for interfaith coexistence .
 

Allyson Zacharoff (Cohort VI, U.S.A.): "An Interfaith Walking Tour." Allyson's initiative will bring Jewish,  Muslim and Christian youth together to explore significant historical and religious sites in Jerusalem with a view of learning from each other.
 
Elena Dini and Elena Tadiello (Cohort VII, Italy): "How to teach about religious and cultural diversity." The project will offer school teachers of Catholic religion and youth educators in Rome tools to teach students and youngsters about religious and cultural diversity. 
 
Lidiia Batig (Cohort VIII, Ukraine): "School of Inter-Religious Journalism." The initiative consists of 12 lectures (a mini-course in training style) offered for religious journalists and young professionals writing on religious themes in Ukraine;
"Multifaith Media Project." Lidiia will record a series of interviews (video + printed version) with religious leaders from different faiths (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) in Ukraine. The interviews will be about pluralism, leadership, coexistence and interreligious dialogue. They will be published as well as made available online on various religious and interreligious web-resources in Ukraine.

News and Upcoming Events
Orientation session for the new Fellows in Rome

From 28 September to October 1, the Fellows of the IX Cohort gathered in Rome for an Orientation Session at the Angelicum. One of the Fellows, Ali Chamseddine, from Lebanon, shared his experience of the orientation:

"As the 28th of September arrived, I was so excited and overwhelmed at the same time. On one hand I was excited to finally meet the fellows of the Russell Berrie Fellowship in person and with whom I will be studying, working and even traveling with this year. On the other hand, I was overwhelmed because I had a fear of the idea "what if we did not get along"? We come from five different countries, different cultures, and backgrounds, even though we all share our interest in interreligious Dialogue. As soon as the orientation program started, the fear was cast away."

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Alumni Appointments
Vinh Hoang (Cohort VII, Vietnam) elected President of the Vietnamese community at the Angelicum


 
On October 16th, the Vietnamese community of the Angelicum elected its new President. This year an alumnus of the Russell Berrie Program, Fr. Vinh Hoang, was elected President of the group which has about 30 members, mostly religious and students studying at the Angelicum. We send our heartfelt wishes to Fr. Vinh for his new ministry assignment.  
Alumni Activities: CANADA, ISRAEL, ITALY
CANADA
Elyse Brazel, (Cohort VIII, Canada), has been selected to participate in the KAICIID International Fellows Programme for Religious Leaders as Practitioners of Interreligious Dialogue 2017. Along with over 20 other applicants (leaders and directors) from important religious education centers in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism studies and other relevant organizations, she will be participating in the upcoming series of three overseas in-person trainings as well as online trainings on interreligious dialogue, coexistence, and pluralism over the course of the next year. During these training s , Elyse will have the opportunity to develop small-scale local and international projects through her work as the Education Coordinator of the Faith and Spirituality Centre at the University of Calgary.
This is a great opportunity for the Faith and Spirituality Centre to build a network with like-minded institutions around the world. The KAICIID international Fellows Programme will also help to increase Elyse's capacity to educate students about interreligious dialogue, equip them with the necessary skills to become active facilitators and leaders in the field and train them in conflict transformation so that they can become active peacemakers in their community.

ISRAEL 
Allyson Zacharoff (Cohort VI, U.S.A.) is spending 2016-2017 studying at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a co-ed, open, non-denominational Jewish learning community in Jerusalem, Israel. She is there as a Conflict Resolution Fellow, with her studies focusing on Jewish text study and conflict resolution. While in Israel she will be interning with the Elijah Interfaith Institute, which has the mission of creating understanding and harmony between the world's religions . The Institute organizes a monthly gathering called Praying Together in Jerusalem, during which individuals from the Abrahamic religions and other religions come together to pray their afternoon prayers alongside each other. Allyson is also working on getting involved in a variety of other interfaith initiatives during her time in Israel.


Picture from the September "Praying Together in Jerusalem" event. Photographer: Katie Archibald-Woodward
ITALY
Two current Berrie Fellows -- Shu Chin Yang (Cohort IX, Malaysia) and Christine Lim (Cohort IX, Malaysia) -- and an alumnus of the Program, Peter Dziedzic (Cohort VI, U.S.A.), took part in an international conference on October 13, 2016 , called: "Rahma. Muslim and Christian Studies in Mercy" at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome.

The event was  organized by the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies. It  began with opening greetings from Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the President of PISAI, Prof. Valentino Cottini. The first major interventions included Cardinal Walter Kasper and Prof. Mouhanad Khorchide, Center for Islamic Theology of the University of Münster, on the topic: What is Mercy? A Christian and a Muslim Response.

The evening continued with a musical interlude from the Beyond Borders Ensemble, directed by Maestro Mehdi Elias Baba-Ameur, called, Dialogue between Ottoman, Andalusian, Sephardic and Armenian music and concluded with an evening meal offered to all the participants.
 
Additional days of the conference offered an intensive program of workshops, that included participation from professors and experts who were Christian and Muslim, coming from European and American universities. 

Interfaith Resources
Rabbi Jack Bemporad's paper on "The Necessity for Theological Dialogue Between Christians and Jews" 

In his paper Rabbi Jack discusses the process of dialogue, and why such a process should lead to theological discussion. He then reviews Rabbi Soloveitchik's position on theological dialogue, delineates the task of theological dialogue, and offers concluding remarks. The paper was first delivered by Rabbi Bemporad in 1996 at the Centro Pro Unione, an ecumenical research and action center in Rome.

To read the paper, please click here.  
We would like to hear from you! If you would like to share your interfaith activities or publications, please contact us!

Contact Information

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Taras Dzyubanskyy | Alumni Coordinator | +380 67 88 32 009 |


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Call for applications for the Russell Berrie Fellowship Program in Interreligious Studies 2017-2018



On behalf of the Russell Berrie Foundation, IIE is pleased to announce the tenth consecutive year of the Russell Berrie Fellowship in Interreligious Studies, arranged at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
The aim of the Fellowship Program is to build bridges between Christian, Jewish, and other religious traditions by providing the next generation of religious leaders with a comprehensive understanding of and dedication to interfaith issues. 

Please click here to share this call with your friends! 

About the Russell Berrie Alumni Network
The Russell Berrie Alumni Network is a global community of Russell Berrie Fellows who have graduated from an interreligious study program at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.